This week: activists swap big ideas; a beloved word game hits the stage; enthusiastic readers welcome a visiting author; authors tour for their paperback editions; kids’ math books earn high marks; and an author’s picture book goes on display.
What’s the Big Idea?
More than 600 guests attended “Big Ideas Night,” a Random House event held at Hunter College on November 7. Featured speakers were journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates, social and political activist Gloria Steinem, and Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative. Jacqueline Woodson moderated the discussion about justice, equality, and activism. All proceeds from the event were donated to the Equal Justice Initiative and the I Have a Dream Foundation. From left: Woodson, Stevenson, Steinem, and Coates.
A _____ [Adjective] Premiere
The musical stage production Mad Libs Live! made its premiere on November 1 at New World Stages in New York City. The interactive show stars four teenagers who form a singing group to win the title of “Teen Superstars!” The trouble is, at the competition, there are words missing in the songs they are to sing – but that’s where the audience (and the spirit of Leonard Stern and Roger Price’s word game) comes in. Here, Mad Libs Live! actors invite theater-goers to fill in the blanks.
Party Time!
Author Victoria Forester (back row, with scarf) just wrapped up a five-city tour for The Boy Who Knew Everything, a sequel to The Girl Who Could Fly, both from Feiwel and Friends. On November 13, Forester visited The Reading Bug in San Carlos, Calif., where she met with students from Fox Elementary and Roosevelt Elementary schools. They posed with her in front of the store’s tea party mural.
Back in Paperback
Authors (l. to r.) Jandy Nelson (I’ll Give You the Sun, Dial), Meg Wolitzer (Belzhar, Dutton), and Ally Condie (Atlantia, Dutton) recently concluded their six-city tour to promote the releases of the paperback editions of their books this fall. The authors made appearances in Miami, Dallas, Wichita, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle. Pictured here is the trio at Half Price Books in Dallas on November 3, where they spoke to more than 60 attendees in a discussion moderated by Texas librarian Rose Brock.
By the Numbers
The CBC, First Book Marketplace, and the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute have teamed to donate more than 1,500 copies of math-related books that have been awarded the institute’s Mathical Prize to more than 100 schools, childhood centers, and community organizations. Here, on November 10, students at W.A. Kendrick Elementary School in Bakersfield, Calif., hold up this year’s winners: Have You Seen My Dragon? by Steve Light (Candlewick), One Big Pair of Underwear by Laura Gehl and Tom Lichtenheld (S&S/Beach Lane), and Really Big Numbers by Richard Evan Schwartz (American Mathematical Society).
In a Word
Picture book author Jim Averback created a recent window display for Mrs. Dalloway’s Bookstore in Berkeley, Calif., which features art from One Word from Sophia (S&S/Atheneum), illustrated by Yasmeen Ismail. The display was created for the NCIBA Mirrors and Windows Diversity Initiative. Here Averback (back l.) is joined by Anne Whaling, bookseller at Mrs. Dalloway’s (front l.), and bookseller Antonia Gunnarson and Will Poulin, a friend of the bookstore.
